Zachary David Thompson (born October 28, 1997) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball (MLB). He made his MLB debut in 2022.
Amateur career
Thompson attended Wapahani High School in Selma, Indiana. He pitched to a combined 19–0 record and 0.59 ERA as a sophomore and junior along with going 4–2 with a 1.88 ERA and striking out 119 batters in 56 innings as a senior. After his senior year, he was selected by the Tampa Bay Rays in the 11th round of the 2016 Major League Baseball draft. However, he did not sign and instead chose to enroll at the University of Kentucky to play college baseball for the Kentucky Wildcats.
In 2017, as a freshman at Kentucky, Thompson appeared in twenty games (13 starts) in which he went 8–3 with a 3.45 ERA. As a sophomore in 2018, Thompson missed nearly two months due to an elbow injury. He appeared in nine games, making seven starts, going 2–1 with a 4.94 ERA. That summer, Thompson played in the Cape Cod Baseball League for the Brewster Whitecaps and also played for the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team. Prior to the 2019 season, Thompson was named to the Preseason All-SEC First Team. He was named the SEC Pitcher of the Week on April 1 after throwing a complete game shutout against the Georgia Bulldogs in which he struck out 13 batters while allowing only two hits. Thompson finished his junior year with a 6-1 record and a 2.40 ERA over 14 starts, striking out 130 batters in ninety innings, earning a spot on the All-SEC Second Team.